Always Fraser

by A. K. Steel

  I look up to him and cup his face, “I can only imagine what it looked like, though, when you walked in. I understand why you didn’t.”

  “Yeah, but I should have known you would never do anything like that. It's my fault you're here like this now.”

  “No, it's definitely not! It's Shea and Tristan's fault, no one else’s. None of this is on you.”

  “She's right, Fraser, this is not on you. Those two are fucked up. Who goes to the trouble to set up someone else just to get back at them? It's the most immature thing I’ve ever heard. Fucking ridiculous!” says Indie, throwing her hands in the air.

  “Thanks for working it all out. What would we do without you, Detective?” I laugh, offering my friend a smile. I’m so lucky to have a friend like her in my life.

  “I don’t know, I might just have to change my career!” Indie looks deep in thought, like she is actually considering the idea, then shakes her head. “Nah, I like painting too much. As long as I’m bridesmaid at your wedding, as payment for my detective services, that's all I ask. Or you could name the baby after me?”

  “Is that right!” I look over to Fraser, and he shrugs. “How about auntie to our baby?” I suggest.

  “Auntie Indie, yeah, I like the sound of that.” She jumps up from her seat and lowers down to hug me. “Got to go, chick, glad you're okay.”

  “Thanks, Indie,” Fraser says, “for everything, for being here when I wasn’t.”

  She gives us a little wave as she walks out the door.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I say, a little embarrassed that Indie keeps bringing up us getting married. I don’t know about Fraser, but I’m so not ready for marriage, even though I’m pregnant.

  “For what?” He gives me a puzzled look.

  “Indie. She keeps saying she will be a bridesmaid at our wedding. It's kind of early for wedding talk.”

  “Why? You're having my baby, and even if you weren't, I knew when we got back together this time, it was forever. I’m going to marry you, Elly. You're my girl, and I want the world to know it.”

  “Fraser Davis is going to settle down!” I fake a shocked look. “Let's not go rushing into anything. I'm not getting married while I’m pregnant.”

  “What, worried you won't fit into some amazing designer gown you just have to have?”

  “No, it’s not that, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s just not how I pictured it, you know.”

  “Okay, gorgeous, no wedding while you're pregnant. But I promise you this, there will be a wedding in the very near future.”

  He smiles and pulls me into a kiss. “Careful of the ankle,” I mumble into his lips. He adjusts himself on the bed, being as careful as he can not to bump my ankle. He threads his fingers through my hair, cupping my head, and bringing me in to kiss him. We pull back and that goofy grin is planted on my face. I can't help it, and he studies my face.

  “You're my girl, Elly, I know the last few months have been crazy, and at times it probably felt like this was hopeless. But I have loved you for a very long time, and now we're going to be a family and I’m going to spend the rest of my life putting that smile on your gorgeous face.”

  They say that the universe works in mysterious ways. And I would have to agree. This year wasn't the perfect year I planned it out to be. But it did change my life forever in such a huge way. I know it won't always be some picture-perfect fairy tale, but it will be spent with the man I love by my side, and if we can survive this year, we will be able to get through anything together.

  And I know one thing's for sure… I will love this man always.

  Epilogue

  Fraser: 12 months later

  I watch Elly walk up the path, pushing the stroller, and it makes me smile. My little family. Today we’re running through the final site inspection on our new house. Our dream house we designed together. I have been here all morning with Ash, making sure everything is going to be ready for the big move next week. So far so good.

  Our son Cooper is six months old already, and he’s just perfect, sitting in the pram smiling and babbling away. He’s the spitting image of his mother with her blonde hair and fair skin, but he has my grey eyes.

  He’s full of energy, and even though he’s only six months old, he’s keeping us on our toes. He started crawling early, at five months, and is into absolutely everything. We have had to implement a few new design details for the house, with him in mind. Having a baby has definitely changed our lives for the better. Our life is full of laughter and happiness, and I can't wait till we move into this place next week.

  Elly looks up and sees me watching her, and her face breaks into her signature show-stopping smile.

  “Hey, gorgeous. How’s your morning going?” I ask.

  “Good, we're just on our way back from the park. I wanted to see how the site inspection is going.”

  “Can’t help yourself, can you? Come on in. You just missed Ash, he’s headed back to the office.”

  Elly parks the pram out the front and unbuckles Cooper, picking him up and putting him on her hip. He cuddles in, wrapping his chubby little hand around a bundle of her hair. I pat him on the head, messing up his soft blond spikes.

  We walk through the front door, and I can see the tears welling in her eyes. Elly has been here many times throughout the building process, but it's always the same.

  “You happy with everything, gorgeous? I hope they’re happy tears.”

  “I’m lost for words, Fraser.” She walks through the kitchen, running her hand along the eclectic tiled wall. “It’s, it’s just beautiful. Everything I could have hoped for and more. I can't believe we move in next week and this place is actually ours.”

  It is pretty amazing. The house is a mix of ultra-modern with a retro twist. Mostly white walls with recycled timber floor. There are pops of colour on the tiled splashback in the kitchen and the bathroom with beautiful retro-patterned tiles Elly found at an auction. My favourite part is the big hanging steel fireplace that features in the sunken lounge room. It’s the centre of the house, and a place, I hope, we spend a lot of time as a family creating memories.

  The kitchen has a large sliding door looking out over a courtyard that will be filled with native plants when the landscaping crew comes through in a few weeks. We couldn’t wait for it to be done for us to move in. I’m too impatient.

  Cooper wriggles out of Elly’s arms, wanting to be put down. She places him on the timber floor, and he takes off crawling around, checking out the place for himself. I pull her into my arms, my hands going to her arse, cupping it as I pull her into a kiss. I could get used to this, holding her in my arms in our house with our little boy. Happiness overwhelms me.

  I brush some stray hairs out of her eyes. She's distracted watching Cooper explore. “Are your parents still good for this afternoon?” I ask.

  “Yes, but I’m not sure about it. What if Coop freaks out because I’m not with him?”

  “He’s not going to. You know that he loves your parents and it's only for a few hours. We’ll be back before bedtime.”

  “Okay, I want to know what you have planned before we leave, though. You know how much I hate surprises.”

  “Yeah, I know, but there's no way I’m giving this one away. You're just going to have to wait and see.”

  She rolls her eyes at me and takes off after Coop, who’s about to crawl onto the back deck.

  Elena

  We drop Cooper off to Mum and Dad and I make a run for the car. I don’t want him to see me crying, but I can’t help it. I know it's silly, but I haven’t left him with anyone other than Fraser before, and I know it's only a couple of hours, but it makes me feel so anxious. I really should trust my parents because they were the ones that raised me and my brothers, but it's been a while. Maybe they’ve forgotten what to do.

  One of the consequences of the accident is that I have become very overprotective of him. Theo was just as furious as Fraser when he found out about what Shea and Tristan did to u
s and how it caused me to fall. He made sure they were charged and slapped with a restraining order. We haven't seen or heard from either of them again. Shea's reputation was completely destroyed and she's not working in this industry anymore, so I haven't even bumped into her. Thank god.

  “Fraser, I’m not so sure about this,” I say, playing with the hem on my skirt, as he drives out of town to our mystery location.

  “Elly, it's only a couple of hours. They have our number if they need us, and we can be back within 20 minutes. It will be good for both of you. He didn’t seem worried when we left, he was happily playing with your mum. I need you all to myself, just for a little bit, then we can come home to Coop.”

  “Okay.” He’s right, we do need to start claiming time back to ourselves. I’ve been working from home managing the business, while the staff Indie and I hired do most of the heavy lifting. Our little business is doing so well, we have made quite a name for ourselves here, and we’re so busy we needed to expand almost immediately. We’re now a team of five with two junior stylists and a coordinator, my old friend Janie from Project Reno.

  Janie couldn't believe her luck when I rang her and offered her the job. The show had been cancelled due to bad ratings. When I left, they couldn't find a replacement and the Dragon was forced to do some actual work herself. She had no idea what she was doing and ran the show into the ground. Janie was working at a furniture shop while she looked for something better. She had nothing keeping her in Sydney, so she happily moved up here to join us. She has been a godsend since I had Coop. I get most of my work done while he sleeps, but now it’s time to really go back to work. Probably just a few days a week to start with. Having a normal adult conversation sounds pretty awesome at this point.

  This drive is starting to feel very familiar, and I look over to Fraser and smile. “Are you taking me to Ti Tree Lake?”

  “It’s a surprise, gorgeous. I can neither confirm nor deny that question,” he says, with a little sideways smirk.

  I let out a little excited squeal. I love it there, and it's where we had our first date. We’ve had picnics with Cooper a few times as well. It's kind of become our special family place.

  As we pull up in the car park, Fraser is quiet, very quiet. He looks like he’s got his own conversation going on in his head.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, just realised I forgot to do something at work yesterday, all good, I’ll fix it on Monday.”

  He grabs a basket out of the trunk, and we walk the winding track down to the lake. It's a stunning spring afternoon and the sound of birds chirping happy songs rings through the air.

  I'm first to make it down the track, as normal, and as I get closer to the lake, I can see a picnic rug set up. My hands go to my mouth in shock. It looks like a romantic date scene out of a movie. There are cushions and candles and flowers in little jars. I look around to see if anyone else is here, but it's just us. I turn around to see Fraser’s grinning at me like a Cheshire cat.

  “So, I’m assuming you had something to do with this?”

  “I may have had some of your fairy friends work their magic for us.” By ‘fairy friends’ I’m sure he’s referring to my team of stylists. I recognise the set-up as some of our new bohemian accessories range.

  “It’s beautiful, Fraser.”

  “It's a special day, our first date back after becoming parents.”

  Hmm, seems like he’s gone to a lot of effort for just a date. He sits on one of the cushions, placing the basket he brought down in front of him, and pats the cushion next to him. Holding his hand up to help me down to him. As I take his hand, I trip and fall a little, ending up on his lap. We both collapse in a fit of laughter.

  “Why am I so clumsy?” I laugh.

  “I have no idea, gorgeous. But I know where Coop gets it from. You sure you didn’t fall on purpose just to get close to me? We can get straight to the happy ending now if you want.”

  I slap him away and pull out of his arms to sit next to him, still laughing.

  “We're sitting here in a romantic set-up and that's all you can think about! Thought having a child that wakes all through the night would have you too tired to think constantly of sex.”

  “Not when I’m around you. It's all I can think about, you’re just so fucking hot, Elly.”

  Now I’m blushing a little and remember what he just said. “Wait, what did you say about the ‘happy ending’? Were you being dirty?”

  “Well, I was going to wait till we had something to eat, maybe some wine, but...” He turns and searches through the basket he brought and pulls something out of it. Oh my, is he about to do what I think?

  He opens the little navy-blue velvet box and inside sits the most exquisite vintage sapphire ring, with a halo of floral-style diamond accents. Just like the one I’ve been eyeing off at the local antique store. But he didn’t know that. Indie! She’s totally in on this.

  “Elena Walker, from the moment I met you I knew I needed you in my life. You are simply perfect and make me the happiest man alive. Will you marry me and spend the rest of your life with me so I can always be this happy?”

  “Yes, Fraser, yes.”

  He slides the exquisite ring onto my finger, and with happy tears rolling down my face, I kiss his lips.

  I may have been young the first time I ever laid eyes on him. But I knew the feeling he gave me was unlike any other I had ever felt. He was someone special and my life wouldn't be complete without him in it. I haven't always believed in fate or happily ever afters. But as long as I have known him, for me, it has always been Fraser.

  The End

  About the Author

  Thank you for reading my romances. I'm a mother of three who lives on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. I have always been a creative soul, with a background in fashion design, interior decoration, and floristry. I currently run a business as a wedding florist and stylist. With the pandemic in 2020 and all wedding work being put on hold due to lockdowns, I was given the opportunity to not only be a reader of my favourite genre, romance, but also to finally put pen to paper and bring a dream of writing my first series to life. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

  For all the news on upcoming books, visit A.K. Steel at:

  Facebook: A. K. Steel Author

  Instagram: aksteelauthor

  Acknowledgments

  My partner, Kiel, you have changed my life in so many wonderful ways. Thank you for pushing me to start writing. Without your encouragement and love, I never would have put pen to paper and started this fantastic journey in the first place. I feel like I found myself this year, and I'm finally where I'm supposed to be. Without you, this never would have happened.

  My amazing mum, Kay, thank you for your constant love and support. You read every word I write and have always been my number one fan. You put up with my meltdowns and endless questions, you are my best friend, and I'm grateful every day to have you in my life.

  My dad, it's been six long years since you left us, but the outlook you had on life still inspires me every day. It’s the reason I believe that if you work hard enough, you can achieve any dream, no matter how impossible it seems.

  My kids—Hamish, Marley, and Quinn—thank you for looking at me like I'm amazing and can do anything, even when I don't feel like I can. Everything I do is for you. And I hope I have shown you that with a bit of determination and hard work, your dreams really can come true.

  Karen, my friend and mentor, you made this dream feel possible. Every time I thought I couldn't do it, you encouraged me to keep on going. I couldn't have done any of this without your knowledge and friendship.

  Lindsay, my editor, thank you for your patience with a new author. Your knowledge and expertise have made this book what it is.

  Sarah, for my gorgeous cover design, and your patience with my indecisiveness. I love the cover you created for me.

  My beta readers—Elise, Shelly, Kirstie, Bek,
and Francesca—thank you for your time, honesty, and support. Without you lovely ladies I wouldn’t have had the courage to publish and share my story.

  My proof readers Shelly and Kay, thank you for double and triple checking every word.

  To my friends and family who have been so supportive along this journey, you have all been so amazing—thank you.

  And lastly to my readers, thank you for taking the time to give a new author a chance, and making my dreams become a reality.